The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the Singapore
University of Technology and Design (SUTD) will set up a new Transport Research
Centre (TRC) – the announcement
was made today by LTA Chairman Mr. Alan Chan at the second edition of LTA’s
Future Mobility Symposium.

The TRC will be the fourth of such bodies established in
partnership with local universities, as part of efforts to build up a strong
core of research and development capabilities within Singapore’s land transport
sector.
The new LTA-SUTD TRC will foster collaborative research in key areas such as
cybersecurity, automation and robotics, data analytics, behavioural studies and
user-centric design in transport solutions.

In particular, the TRC will focus on issues pertinent to Singapore’s context,
such as the country’s aging population, land scarcity and rising travel demand
for public transport. It will leverage SUTD’s expertise in multi-disciplinary
design and technology, transportation, cybersecurity and Internet of Things
(IoT) to provide new dimensions to transport research.

Following LTA’s establishment of TRCs with Nanyang Technological University
(NTU), National University of Singapore
(NUS) and Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) at the inaugural edition
of the Future Mobility Symposium in November 2015, a total of 33 research
projects on topics such as active mobility, autonomous and electric vehicles,
and condition-based rail maintenance have been funded and carried out.

Some successes which have since been scaled up include:

i. A collaborative research project between LTA and
the NUS TRC to develop an innovative noise mitigation solution for
construction sites. These noise barriers are currently being used at the
East Coast stretch of the Thomson-East Coast Rail Line, and will also be
deployed at future construction sites.

ii. A project by the NTU TRC on signage design,
which takes into account the evolving user experience using a quantitative
approach. This project has been recognised by the International Institute for
Information Design Award and accorded the Bronze award (Research Category).

LTA is also working with the SIT TRC on ongoing projects
relating to condition monitoring and rail reliability. The Transport Systems
and Systems Engineering Laboratories, launched in February this year, aim to
enhance laboratory-based teaching and application-focused research in the areas
of systems engineering, modelling and simulation.

LTA’s Chief Innovation & Technology Officer Mr Lam Wee Shann said:
“As we build a commuter-centric public transport system, we need to constantly
innovate and monitor technological trends to be at the forefront of the
technological curve. By tapping on the research expertise of our
higher-learning institutions, we can deepen our research capabilities, and
accelerate the development of innovative solutions for the transport challenges
of today as well as tomorrow’s. We are pleased to partner SUTD, and continue
the good work with the other universities, to co-create solutions that will set
us in good stead to seize the opportunities that will arise in the transport
sector in future.”

“At SUTD, we aim to create innovations that better
the world by design. Singapore’s transport sector is changing rapidly and we
are pleased to partner LTA during these exciting times. In this
collaboration with LTA, we will be applying our design expertise to
transportation. Together, we will develop transport solutions that are
centred on the user and ensure that these solutions are secure and trustworthy.
We will also focus our research and development efforts on technologies that
prepare us for Singapore's transportation needs for the future,” said Dr. Wong Woon Kwong, SUTD’s Director of
Industry Development.

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